Star Citizen Threatens Lawsuit Against Escapist Magazine

October 4th, 2015 Connor

If you haven’t been paying attention to the ongoing drama surrounding Star Citizen, the public spat between Chris Roberts and Derek Smart has expanded to include a very critical article published, and subsequently backed up by, The Escapist. The article alleged discriminatory practices at CIG against racial minorities, enforced by Roberts’ own wife, that Roberts himself would routinely insult and demean employees, and that the company was “bleeding money and employees.”

Chris Roberts responded to the article by, naturally, blaming Derek Smart, and taking the time to dig up dirt on the article’s author to engage in personal attacks.

I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up.

Derek Smart’s name, despite having no part in the creation of the Escapist’s article, comes up more than 20 times in Roberts’ response. Roberts also pulls from other unrelated events, including Gamergate, Randi Harper, and Brianna Wu.

In an update posted to the response page, Cloud Imperium Games has made it public that they intend to take legal action against The Escapist, maintaining the claim that the article was a conspiracy between the author and Derek Smart. CIG has demanded a public apology from The Escapist, as well as an apology to their HR department and an investigation into how the article was approved. Otherwise the developer intends to take legal action.

Normally, we would keep this behind closed doors, but we felt it was imperative to put our statement on record and indicate how disgusted we are with The Escapist’s irresponsible actions. Corporate at Defy Media asked us to delay publication of this letter while investigating, but we feel strongly that the record needs to be set straight without further delay.

As noted in the letter, anything expressed should not be construed as a complete statement of the facts.